


baby you're a firework

by tostitos



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Attempt at Humor, Dreamsharing, Elemental Magic, Fluff, M/M, Soulmates, but they're cute? i guess, i just wanted to write firetruck! taeil, tbh idk what this is, the side characters are a lot more interesting than johnil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 22:43:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20937959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tostitos/pseuds/tostitos
Summary: taeil never cared much about soulmates when there's no guarantee if they'd ever meet, but when he starts having the Dream, his soulmate feels closer than ever.





	baby you're a firework

**Author's Note:**

> idk what ship this fic is for but it surely isn't johnil
> 
> this started out poetic and turned into my usual bullshit. love that. i have an actual crush on firetruck!taeil and so i started writing with Zero goal and my friend was like pair with johnny cuz he's the only person in nct that they know and here we are, writing johnil when we know nothing about johnil
> 
> (that's also why it ends where it does, cuz idk what im doing with this dynamic hahaha oop)

i.

the sky bleeds like water droplets on an ink pen, red and pink making purple out of blue and taeil finds himself staring at the stars that have already begun to shine through. 

there's a key in his hands but he doesn't know why or what to do with it; not when the only thing around him is grass that he doesn't feel beneath his feet and the pen drawn sky. it's gold and fat at the handle and slim at the end, and when he blinks, a tweed thread laces itself between the hole at the top and ties into a knot around his wrist.

so, he keeps it.

and because there's nothing else to do, he walks.

he walks along the wild grass and rolling hills he can't feel beneath his heels until he reaches the end, where the pen drawn sky pushes down the horizon and swallows the hills, red and pink and blue and purple and black as far as the eye can see.

the stars twinkle.

taeil takes another step forward. and falls off the edge.

he falls up, like he's in a snow globe someone has flipped upside down, and he feels like he should be screaming.

so, he does.

he screams and falls and screams and then he's on his back on the ground, staring up at the sky he was just falling through.

he clamps his mouth shut, blinks wide eyes until they relax.

"um...hi?"

taeil tilts his head back and flinches at the boy sitting right behind him, staring at taeil like he's a ghost who just appeared out of nowhere.

rolling onto his stomach, he pushes himself up to sit on his knees. the key in his palm digs into his skin as he does so but he hardly notices.

"oh, uh...hello?"

the boy looks up, frowning, and taeil takes his diverted attention as a chance to stare. the boy looks like ocean - with hair the color of the foam the waves make as they fall onto the beach and eyes a startling electric blue, their corners dusted with white glitter that looks the way sunlight fractures off warm sand. he has lips that are as pink as the perpetually setting sky and cheeks that are round but a jaw that is slim.

"did you just fall from the sky?"

taeil looks up too. he clears his throat. "yes?"

the boy makes a small noise and taeil glances at him again. "well," he swipes his tongue over his lips, "i've been having this dream for weeks now and now you've shown up so, hey i guess we're soulmates."

when the boy raises his hand for an out of place shake, taeil notices the lock of gold tied around his wrist and the key suddenly makes sense.

he slides his palm against the other boy's own.

"shit, can't argue with that logic."

ii.

taeil isn't unfamiliar with soulmates. his birth parents weren't soulmates, but when there is no way to know when exactly you'll meet your soulmate in person after having the dreams, people don't tend to wait to make families. and that's not to say taeil's parents weren't in love when they made the decision to start a family, but after some years it became apparent that they just weren't compatible. his mother met her soulmate three years after she divorced his father, just like how his father met his soulmate last year, and they're both much happier.

there's no consistency amongst people when it comes to soulmates - no common age when people first have the dreams, no observable amount of time it takes for one to meet their soulmate after them. plenty of people don't even meet their soulmates, as if the universe cares enough to choose the perfect match for them but not enough to ensure they find each other.

with a world so vast, it's easy to not care about the person who is supposed to make you feel like the very best version of yourself.

so, when taeil wakes up, he's not sure what to feel.

there's too many emotions whirling around inside him, and the excitement is too much. his hair bursts into wild flames of yellow and orange and he thinks he should probably sit up, but all he does is reach up a hand to grab his phone that he keeps by his pillow and toss it toward his legs.

he stares at the ceiling, thinking about an endless sky and blue in every possible shade.

interesting - perhaps a little cliche, even - that his soulmate would be born of water.

interesting, that his soulmate feels familiar in a way he can't quite put his finger on.

like a candle flame hit by a string breeze, taeil's hair goes out, the blond strands limp and ordinary against the fire retardant fabric surrounding his pillow.

finally, he sits up. he runs a hand over his face, rubbing the grit out of the corners of his eyes.

it's another day.

iii.

they don't dream every night.

one night taeil dreams of a vigilante posing as a superhero; one night he dreams he's a kid again, being pelted with rocks by earth elementals in the neighborhood. most nights, he doesn't remember.

two weeks pass before he enters their dream, looking the same.

at first glance, he doesn't see his soulmate and he really hopes he won't have to fall through the sky again. it won't hurt, but knowing he's inside a dream doesn't lessen any of the shock of hurtling through space.

there are trees he didn't notice the first time - or maybe they're new - and he walks over to one standing tall with leaves of red and yellow and orange.

"boo!"

screaming, taeil jumps. he looks at his soulmate poking his head out from around the tree with wide eyes. the other boy has a grin as wide as the sky above them and taeil feels the urge to return the smile. sadly, he's having trouble catching his breath.

"i got you so good."

heart still beating fast in his chest, taeil inhales deep. "what was that for?"

his soulmate comes from behind the tree to stand next to him. he smells like petrichor.

it's nice.

he shrugs. "got bored. wanted to see if i could shake you up," he says, wiggling his fingers.

"you're gonna shake me up and get yourself set on fire," replies taeil, the adrenaline petering out and the elation that rushes in making him laugh.

"is that supposed to scare me?" taeil's soulmate asks, eyes glittering and crystalline. he plucks a drop of water out of the air and flicks it at taeil.

it lands on the bridge of his nose and slides down to hang off the tip. taeil crosses his eyes as he looks down at his nose, humming sadly like he doesn't know what to do about this horrible situation.

his soulmate snorts, extending a cold finger to wipe the droplet.

taeil exhales a heavy sigh. "thank goodness," he presses a hand to his chest and continues dramatically, "i thought i'd never spark a flame again."

snorting again, the boy of water drops down to the earth beneath them, crosses his legs and leans back against the tree. there's no reason why he shouldn't, so taeil follows, sitting close enough for it to seem familiar and far enough that they remember that they're still technically strangers.

"so... what do we talk about?" taeil asks before the silence between them can stretch for too long and become awkward.

he wouldn't say he's socially inept or bad at meeting new people, but they might never come across each other in person. there's also the chance that they're from different countries and the ability to understand each other in the dream doesn't translate to real life. how do you get to know someone who was born for you, but who isn't your destiny?

"do you wanna play twenty questions?"

taeil sniffs.

that's a start he supposes.

by the time taeil wakes up, he learns that his soulmate is a dog person, likes barbecue sauce on his pizza, runs long distance track and field, and a lot of other small, random things.

he realizes, when he's on the phone with his mother who still doesn't know he's started having the dream as he walks to campus, he never asked for his soulmate's name. but for some reason, he feels like he knows.

iv.

"mr. moon."

taeil's pencil stops scratching over paper, a half-drawn dog that looks more like a wheelchair with a sausage hanging off it staring up at him. slowly, he looks up at his physics teaching assistant hovering above the platform where he's doing his lecture review. there's something annoying about the way he refuses to put his feet on the ground, and it's one hundred percent the performative, holier-than-thou attitude that comes from being able to defy certain aspects of gravity that air elementals in this field of science often have. what none of them seem to realize is that it's not special when air elementals are the most common out of them all.

"would you like to contribute to the class?"

taeil inhales slow and exhales just the same. "maybe you can ask me again after you've actually asked a question for me to have a contribution to," he says. because he's been doodling for the last fifteen minutes, but he's also been paying attention because he knows how to multi-task. and he knows that the TA has just finished answering kun's question and has yet to continue with the review.

an awkward silence fills the classroom like sticky, summer humidity. any other day, taeil wouldn't have said anything and simply given a small you-know-you're-wrong-for-calling-me-out smile. unfortunately, his nerves are haywire with the unshakable feeling that he's missing something that should be obvious. plus, he's never liked this TA or this class that he's only taking to fulfill his third and final physical science requirement.

he stares at the graduate student leading the class until the TA shakes his head and moves on to the next topic in the review. in the last twenty minutes of class, taeil erases his doodle and covers the smudged pencil with a sketch of the key he always has in his dreams and the lock of his soulmate, his hand writing 'J' above the lock before his mind can even think of why.

v.

"that's literally the first thing you're supposed to ask someone when you first meet."

taeil leans back when jungwoo haphazardly points his chopsticks right between his eyes, always one to talk with his hands.

"like, how do you even get his attention? say 'hey, you, soulmate'?" the fork twirls in a circle as jungwoo points a finger at taeil in gesture.

"you're going to poke someone's eye out." a third hand curls around the fork and yanks them out of jungwoo's grip. "and fate won't allow it to be your own, so." doyoung places the utensil on the edge of the plate between them.

jungwoo doesn't hear anything doyoung says - a recurrence in their almost nine year relationship - still glaring down taeil who raises his hands in surrender.

"i just wasn't thinking about it," he explains.

"you're a cynic," jungwoo counters and, well, both can be true at the same time.

it's not taeil's fault that he doesn't think he'll ever meet his soul mate and therefore doesn't see the point in exerting effort in becoming close through the dream. it's also not fair of jungwoo to get annoyed by that because he and doyoung were lucky enough to be neighbors practically their whole lives and always had each other.

"and i know it's been years since you two had it, but there isn't really a need to call for each other when we're the only people in the dream."

jungwoo picks up his fork again and groans. "but still." he throws his hands out and taeil flinches again as wind swirls between them.

"woo," doyoung chides.

not everyone's appearance mimics their element. taeil's does and doyoung's bright blue hair and dark navy eyes do as well, but taeil often has to remind himself that jungwoo's burnt orange hair is chemical and that he doesn't have to worry about being set on fire. (he already sets himself on fire enough as it is.)

taeil attempts a disarming smile. "i know he likes hazelnut and vanilla in his coffee?"

jungwoo purses his lips. "but that's not important, hyung. i don't even know what doyoung likes in his coffee and we're engaged."

snorting, doyoung picks up his own fork and cuts a chunk off the carrot cake he always gets when they come to caffie's, a small cafe close to campus. "thank you, my dear soulmate, for caring about the little things about me." he shoves the sweet into his mouth and looks at taeil. "you're already aware you don't know his name so all you need to do now is ask him the next time you have the dream."

taeil planned to do that anyway but he nods.

"and maybe think about exchanging messenger ids," doyoung adds. "we do have technology. just because it might be hard to ever meet in person, doesn't mean that you can't let him into your life."

taeil blinks. "oh, yeah. i didn't think about that."

doyoung smiles, soft and supportive. "at the very least, even if you and your soulmate are worlds apart, you'll be a better soulmate than this one." he throws his head at jungwoo who gasps, scandalized, and leans his head on doyoung's arm, pouting.

"take that back. you love me."

clicking his tongue, doyoung takes another piece of cake. "only because i have to."

vi.

of course, when the thought to ask is on his mind, he doesn't have the dream again for the next three weeks.

vii.

"you know, and maybe this is crazy of me to suggest, but if you put down your phone for thirty minutes and actually studied, you wouldn't need to waste your, and most importantly, my, time with tutoring," taeil says, chin cushioned in the palm of his hand as he watches first year and fire elemental, donghyuck, type furiously on his phone.

donghyuck's fingers don't pause, nor does he look up, when he answers with, "don't complain when i pay you five thousand won an hour to do nothing."

taeil glances at donghyuck's textbook and he's just barely mature enough to stop himself from setting it on fire.

"love making less than minimum wage on a two hours a week commitment," he says instead, deadpan.

"any money is good money when you're broke and surviving on ramyeon and oreo cookies. without me, heart disease probably would have taken you out by now." donghyuck finishes his sentence with a dramatic dropping of his phone on the table between them. he looks up, amber eyes full of amusement.

taeil glances at the pumpkin spice frappuccino across from him and flicks a flame off the top of his finger. it catches on the tip of the straw.

"hyung," whines donghyuck. he pinches the flame and frowns at the blackened ends of his straw.

"hyung," taeil mimics donghyuck’s tinny voice, pulling an odd face.

popping the top off his drink, donghyuck pulls out the straw and sucks it clean. "i do not sound like that," he says, smacking his lips. he leaves the straw on the table next to the cup, obviously resolving to just drink from the rim. "god, between you and johnny hyung, i can't enjoy anything. though at least i can counter anything you throw at me."

taeil ignores all of that, knowing for a fact that he's donghyuck’s favorite hyung.

"who's johnny?" he asks. his stomach jumps oddly when the name leaves his lips and it leaves him confused.

after fifteen minutes of them sitting in the library, donghyuck finally opens his text book. "the vice president of the english conversation club i joined."

taeil hums, eyebrows raising. "you didn't tell me you joined a new club."

"was i supposed to?" donghyuck finds the start of the chapter he needs help with. "but, anyway, he's basically you, but, like, romantic, and actually funny."

pouting, taeil lightly kicks at donghyuck under the table. donghyuck lights the end of his pencil on fire and pretends like he's going throw it.

"seriously, though. you should come to one of the hang-outs. put your five years of compulsory english to use."

something in taeil likes the sound of that, even though he's never been that interested in the language past watching sitcoms on netflix, and it's weird.

"i don't know..." he mumbles.

"we're having a smash brothers tournament next weekend," donghyuck says as a loose invitation.

and as he turns the text book to face taeil, that's the end of it.

viii.

"hey! look, i changed it!"

taeil's soulmate is there when he slips into the dream two nights later. as always. this time, the sky doesn't stretch endless or drip like watercolor. it's a gentle blue, filled with light, whispy clouds.

a bus closes its doors behind taeil with a hiss and rolls on, the sound of it soon blending in with the rest of the city around them.

taeil's heart thuds quick in his chest and it's not because of the wide grin stretching across his soulmate's face or the way the sun hits his hair makes it look like the rolling waves of the purest of sea waters.

in front of his eyes is the cafe he visits a few times a week when he gets up early enough to make the detour without being late for class. there are a few things that are different - the color of the curtains in the window, the size of the chalkboard standing outside the door - things that memory is too fragile to get exactly correct, but this is definitely caffie's.

"i read online that some people alter their dreams to be closer to reality so they could get to know each other more naturally. i've never been able to do the whole lucid dreaming thing but hey, first time for everything."

taeil hardly hears what his soulmate is saying, looking around at the image of the area around his university campus and wondering how.

the gongcha is across the street, the hotteok stand parked in front of it as it always is. there's the overpriced hair salon, and the dry cleaners, and the mcdonald's.

"where are we?" taeil asks, voice thin as he watches imaginary people walk down the street.

"oh, this is around my university."

sucking in a breath, taeil whirls around to look at the other boy. his hair whips as well, bursting into wild flames.

his soul mate hardly bats an eye, and then a cloud opens right above taeil's head, spilling rain that makes steam curl like cigarette smoke in the air between them. it's enough to quell taeil's tendency to spontaneously combust, but it's a shame it's not enough to smother the blaze making his stomach twist.

taeil never thought of what he do when he made contact with the soulmate he never meet; he's even more at a loss of what to do now that he knows there is nothing like cities or oceans between them.

hair dripping into his face, taeil feels like a typhoon, out of control and wet.

"definitely wasn't expecting that reaction." thick eyebrows raise. "should i think up a fire extinguisher?" the boy of water attempts to joke, smile imperceptibly strained.

"what's your name?" taeil finally asks after two months.

his soulmate blinks. "oh, i thought we were doing the whole 'keep identifying information as a mystery and let fate bring us together' thing," he says, completely serious.

a romantic. the complete opposite of taeil and yet he finds that kind of adorable.

"my name's john but everyone calls me johnny." his grin is so wide, so bright. he's a water elemental but taeil isn't sure that he's not made of light.

"like johnny from english conversation club?" taeil blurts out.

sure, there could be multiple 'johnnys' on campus but that doesn't mean there actually _ are _.

surprise takes over the other boy's face and his mouth rounds into a precious, perfect oval. 

"depends on who's asking."

"donghyuck’s east asian history tutor."

"...taeil?"

taeil would be surprised donghyuck’s talked about him enough for johnny to know his name, but he's a little preoccupied with the way his heart leaps straight out of his chest.

"y-yeah."

johnny ahs. "i can see why you caught fire now."

a fierce blush paints its way across taeil's cheeks. "yeah...that, um, tends to happen when i get overwhelmed."

johnny's face softens like that's the cutest thing he's ever heard and not like it's absolutely mortifying to explode whenever your heart rate picks up too much. "good thing you have a personal fire fighter now." he says with a wink.

that's probably the cheesiest thing he's heard in a while, but taeil finds it incredibly endearing. everyone says he's not romantic because of his opinions on soulmates, but they never realize that taeil's heart flutters for the slightest of smiles, the shiest of laughs and everything more than that. he wants someone who's every breath can make him laugh just like anyone else.

that person is supposed to be johnny.

taeil never thought he'd meet him, but he's never been happier to know that he can.

"that was gross," taeil laughs. "i also don't think you make a very good fire fighter."

"is this secret code for 'you're so charming and handsome that i'm going to burst into flames because of you'?"

snorting, taeil pushes at johnny's shoulder and slips past him to get to the door of the cafe. "in your dreams," he says, fully aware of the pun.

when he glances back at johnny, the other boy's grin is uncontrollable.

he's beautiful.

ix.

there's nothing stopping them from meeting the very next day, not when they compare everything from their favorite kinds of music to their schedules to how annoying their neighbors are, and find out they're both free from eleven to one. but taeil remembers donghyuck’s loose invitation to the game night, so when johnny asks about getting coffee outside of the dream, he says he'd like a little more time and that he should trust that fate will bring them together.

that doesn't mean taeil doesn't keep his eye out for his soulmate like searching for a light house out at sea.

he wakes up thirty minutes earlier so he can linger around caffie's before he goes to class, just in case johnny also happens to pop in. he doesn't, but taeil doesn't mind.

"don't embarrass me in front of everyone."

face scrunching in distaste, taeil side-eyes donghyuck as they stand outside an apartment building a couple blocks away from campus in the opposite direction of his own. "you're embarrassing on your own," he says, looping an arm around donghyuck’s neck and ruffling his hair.

donghyuck shouts, pushing taeil off with an annoyed scrunch of his nose. he turns to the intercom, punching in the room number.

"welcome to wendy's. can i take your order?" someone says in english over the speaker a moment later.

"yeah, can i get i an order of open the door, stupid?" donghyuck replies in korean.

"who is it?" comes another voice that makes taeil's chest swell.

johnny, whose voice sounds even more like summer nights alone on the beach than he did in the dream.

the first person who answered the intercom answers. "full sun."

a buzz signals the unlocking of the door and donghyuck pulls it open.

as taeil follows the freshman into the elevator, he feels it - the warmth that spreads through his body before combustion - and he tries to shake out his fingers. the absolute last thing he needs is to spark because he's nervous and excited. he watches the numbers above the elevator door light up until they're on the fourth floor and the doors slide open with a grinding sound.

taeil's arm brushes against donghyuck as they leave the elevator and the younger boy glances at him with a raised brow.

"are you okay? you're hot."

taeil smirks and runs a hand through his hair. "i know."

snorting, donghyuck nudges him with his elbow. "these dudes are a bunch of losers. you don't have anything to worry about." he knocks on the door of apartment 414 and leans against the door post. "aside from getting your ass kicked at smash."

chuckling because that's not at all the problem, taeil just nods.

the door swings open then, the sound of old town road spilling into the hallway.

"hey." donghyuck fist bumps the boy who opens the door then looks back at taeil. "this is mark. mark, this is taeil."

mark lifts up his hand for a fist bump that taeil gives him with a 'what's up?' he glances at his hand afterward. "fire?"

taeil chuckles, pink crawling into his ears. "yeah."

there are three other guys sprawled around the small living room that taeil sees when mark steps back to let them into the apartment. two of them hardly glance up, too engrossed in a heated mario kart race. the one in the bean bag chair looks up from his phone and gives taeil a charming smile.

"hey, i'm jaehyun."

"and that's ten and taeyong," mark supplies helpfully as he tosses himself lengthwise along the couch.

"alright, boys, the pizza is ordered and--"

taeil's eyes snap to the entrance of the hallway to the left.

he's heard that the dream sometimes highlights people's elements in their appearance in a way that doesn't reflect reality, so johnny's brown hair and earthy eyes aren't so much a surprise as they are a pleasant discovery. other than that he looks just the same, cheeks still round and legs still much too long and mouth still rounding into that perfect circle in surprise.

taeil waves awkwardly, the tips of his fingers glowing hot orange. "...hi."

snapping out of his shock, johnny grins bigger than taeil has ever seen in all of their dreams. "hey," he returns as he enters his living room and approaches taeil. "nice to meet you."

words stick in taeil's throat, a small 'uh huh' all that he can manage.

"i'd ask if i could hug you but you already look close to detonating."

red all over, taeil chuckles. "yeah, that's...probably for the best."

donghyuck, sitting on the edge of the couch, looks between them. "do you know each other?"

taeil shrugs while johnny throws his head back and laughs. at the same time, they answer, "we're soulmates."

x.

the sky is bleeding again, watercolor spilt over a wet canvas. it reminds taeil of himself - bold red and fiery oranges and vibrant yellows. (he understands why donghyuck’s friends call him 'full sun'.)

taeil scratches at his wrist where a braided yarn bracelet rests as he walks along neatly cut grass. there's a fountain at the end of the walkway, made of white stone, and water flows from it in ballerina twirls and arches.

this time, he doesn't have to worry about falling through the sky as he admires the view.

"hey, firecracker." sitting on the edge of the fountain, long legs outstretched and crossed at the ankle, is johnny. he holds out a hand that taeil slaps his palm against.

"hey, sprinkler system."

johnny laughs. "of all things, _ that_?"

properly taking johnny's hand, taeil pulls him up to stand. "firecracker isn't much better. it sounds like something you'd call your rowdy six year old kid."

"you're just as unromantic as donghyuck said."

johnny squeezes his hand before letting go and taeil appreciates the gesture, both the hold and the release. they might be soulmates, but they're still strangers and knowing they're destined for each other doesn't really change that.

slipping his hand into the pocket of his sweatshirt, taeil turns up his nose. "or maybe you're just bad at coming up with pet names that'll make my fire cracker."

johnny opens his mouth to speak but only smiles and stares at taeil with glittering eyes. running his tongue over his lips, he presses them closed and tries to bite back laughter. "taeil?"

grinning, feeling accomplished, taeil hums. "yes?"

"i think i love you."

"good." taeil nods, slips his hand out of his pocket and wraps it around johnny's arm to pull him forward, hoping the water elemental doesn't feel how warm his hands are. they're supposed to be getting dinner and standing around exchanging banter is nice but adoration isn't going to fill taeil's stomach and too much of it might really turn him into a fireworks show. "then we're on the right track."

**Author's Note:**

> hmu @unflorescent or don't. im boring anyway


End file.
